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Out Of Tragedy, Teams Share A Sense Of Purpose

April 16, 2008

By Bob Lipper

Caroline Stolle notices something different about Virginia Tech softball this season.

There is no bickering.

She's not complaining, mind you, just making an observation. Like most teams, the softball squad at Tech is quasi-family — a bunch of individuals thrown together intended to bond as one. The best of those teams become close enough to trust that an argument or catty remark here or there won't damage their core.

But there's not even been that sort of minor-league friction for these Hokies.

"All year, we've been wondering why we haven't had any of that," said Stolle, the team's senior left fielder by way of Chester and L.C. Bird High School. "But people are more understanding and willing to let things go."

It's been one year since Virginia Tech's campus was devastated by shootings that left 32 students and faculty members dead. The mourning never ceases. But out of the overwhelming sadness has come — maybe beginning with Nikki Giovanni's "We will prevail" clarion call of last April — a sharpened sense of shared purpose at Tech and in Blacksburg.

"I'm really proud of my school — how people have really come together," Stolle said. "What attracted me to Virginia Tech in the first place was how close everybody is. It's funny. There's 28,000 people here, and everybody is really tightly knit — it feels like it's a much smaller school. I wish every day what happened never happened. But I'm also proud to be here and see how people responded and supported each other and came together."

The outcome is not entirely coincidental. Campus leaders stressed from the beginning the need to form stronger links among Tech people. Football coach Frank Beamer was at the forefront of that push.

"Since that time, what we've tried to do is make sure we do everything that needs to happen every day," Beamer said. "Become closer as a Hokie Nation, respect each other more, care for each other more and be relentless in our effort to get through this."

Marking a year's passing since the horror of April 16, 2007, the Tech community will unite again today for a series of commemorative events — the largest of them, a morning assembly and an evening candlelight vigil, to take place on the Drillfield where a memorial to the victims is located. The day likely will be difficult for some.

"The hardest thing for me has been all of the ceremonies," said basketball coach Seth Greenberg. "As a parent . . . I think of all those families coming back. At the end of those ceremonies, we go back to our own lives, and these families go back to the void in their lives. As a parent, I just can't imagine taking that phone call and making that drive."

The hangover endures for those on the periphery of the victims and their families. Stolle, for example, knew none of the people who died in Norris Hall yet says the last year has "been really difficult. Sometimes, I have to keep from crying. I didn't think it'd affect me that way."

Beamer, meanwhile, was moved by a newspaper article he read the other day about accounting professor Bryan Cloyd, whose daughter, Austin, was killed April 16.

"I cried all the way through it," Beamer said. "You realize so many talented people and smart people and great-futures people — for so many, their lives ended and for no reason. It's a very somber time."

Greenberg, for his part, finds that when he walks across campus, he invariably gravitates to the Drillfield memorial and pauses there for a minute or two. Multitudes figure to do the same today. Some of them might attend the softball game against Liberty, the only athletic event at Tech that coincides with the anniversary. Softball was one of the first teams to play on campus after last year's tragedy.

"It was really emotional for me last year," Stolle said. "I was crying a lot. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep it together for the game. I don't want it to be like that this time, but I know it'll be really emotional."

Such feelings are easily tapped at Tech ("It's a constant . . . something that's very vivid in everyone's mind because of the magnitude of it," Greenberg said). Beamer believes those sensations are unlikely to be dulled even as the years pass.

"I think it'll always be something that'll be with us," Beamer said. "We need to remember those people every day."